


The Difference Between Science and Goofing Around

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Twin Trade AU [5]
Category: Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Gen, Parallel Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-13 11:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4520787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is <i>writing it down."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Difference Between Science and Goofing Around

**Author's Note:**

> The summary - and inspiration for the title - is an Adam Savage quote. It felt appropriate.  
> This follows "Blind." directly, as in, within the week. It contains exactly zero Stans, for fairly obvious reasons.  
> It DOES, however, contain a Twin Trade first: a crossover cameo!

“Hey, shortstuff, whatcha up to today?”

Ursa, who was sitting cross-legged on the gift shop’s cashier counter, shrugged. “Dunno yet.”

Wendy raised her eyebrows. “I figured you were doing something special, since you’re all dressed up.”

“Dressed up?” repeated Ursa, snorting.

Wendy nodded. She took Ursa’s hat off of her head, bopped her with it, then put it up on one of the brain jars. “Ursa, you’ve worn the same clothes –“

“Hey, I do laundry!”

“Dude,” Wendy said flatly. “You’ve worn the same clothes, like, practically all summer. You probably had to raid Max’s dresser to find shorts that weren’t grey.” For emphasis, she plucked at the hem of Ursa’s decidedly green legwear.

“I just felt like shaking things up today,” Ursa said defensively.

“Okay,” said Wendy. “But if you do decide to do something cool, count me in.”

“Gotcha,” Ursa replied. She leaned back on her hands, idly watching the customers milling about the gift shop.

“Hey, kid, get off the counter!” Granddad called. “If you’re not gonna – oh, Ursa. I didn’t recognise you.”

“What?” Ursa said over Wendy’s laughter.

Granddad shrugged. “You’re wearing colours.”

Ursa spluttered, and Wendy laughed even harder.

\--

“Max!”

“Hello, sister of mine,” Max greeted. “Nice outfit.”

“Gah, why is everybody so hung up on my _clothes_ today?” Ursa said, throwing her arms into the air.

“Could be because you’ve worn the same thing for two months straight,” suggested Max.

“Shut up.”

“Are those my shorts?”

“Shut _up!”_

Max giggled. “Okay, okay. What’s up?”

“Are you going to keep making fun of my clothes?” asked Ursa warily.

“I’m not making fun,” Max said, looking as serious as he could muster. “It’s a nice change, May-B.”

Ursa narrowed her eyes, suspicious, but carried on anyway. “Well, I was thinking. We should get out of the house for a bit, don’t you think?”

“Sounds like fun,” said Max. “We huntin’ a mystery?”

Ursa shook her head firmly. “No mystery. Just fun, okay? We can go into town for a bit, yeah?”

“Cool,” replied Max. “I’ll wait here for you to go grab your backpack.”

“I’m not bringing my backpack.”

“Your vest, then,” Max tried.

“It’s too hot, Maxie,” Ursa replied.

Max frowned. “How’re you gonna carry your journal, then? You hate not being hands-free.”

“I’m not bringing the journal.” She adjusted her tank top’s strap. “This is just you and me. And maybe Wendy. No science, just goofing off.”

And with that, she ran out the door.

Max shook his head, calling after her, “With you, what’s the _difference_?”

\--

“I’m serious, shortstuff, it’s, like, a crime,” Wendy insisted.

“Fine,” said Ursa. “When we’re done with our walk, and you’re done ‘working,’” she punctuated this with air quotes and a raised eyebrow, “we’ll watch it.”

“Cool!” Wendy replied. She ruffled Ursa’s hair. “So, Max, you in?”

Max, who was wearing Ursa’s hat, shook his head. “Nah, movie nights are your girl thing, I’m not gonna get into the middle of that. Plus, unlike my heathen sister, I _have_ seen the _Back to the Future_ trilogy.”

Ursa rolled her eyes.

This was a good day. The quietest they’d had in a while, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Sure, the mystery stuff was fun, but.

Well, Ursa had seen what it could do to a person, and had decided she needed to get it out of her system a bit.

So yeah, this was nice. Exactly what she needed.

She wasn’t itching to investigate the sounds of combat coming from around the corner at _all_.

“Hey, do you hear that?” Max asked, tipping his behatted head to one side.

“Sounds like fighting,” Wendy observed. “Wanna go check it out? I know it’s your chill day, Urs, but –“

“Nah, it’s cool; mostly I just had to get away from – uh, the house,” Ursa interrupted. “Let’s go.”

They (cautiously) crept around the corner. Two teenagers stood back-to-back, surrounded by monsters, nothing like anything Ursa had seen before.

“Hey, d’you guys need a hand?” Wendy called.

The girl – a brunette in a red zip-up hoodie – spun around, kicking a monster in the head in the process. “Uh, no, ordinary people should probably stay back, we’ve got this.”

The boy – blond, with a weird devil horn-esque headband – rolled his eyes. “ _You’re_ an ordinary people, Maria.”

“Am not!”

“Are too. Duck for a sec.”

The girl, Maria apparently, did.

“Rainbow DEATH MUFFINS!” the boy shouted. The weird little thing he was holding lit up and flung what appeared to actually _be_ rainbow death muffins at the monsters.

“I could use something like that,” Ursa muttered.

“Do you recognise any of these guys?” Wendy asked her, nodding toward the random assortment of attack-y monsters.

Ursa shook her head. “Don’t think so. I’d need the journal to be sure, but – anyway, no. I don’t think they’re native to the Gravity Falls area.”

“I didn’t know invasive monster species were, like, a thing,” Wendy mused.

“They’re definitely not native,” the blond boy said brightly.

“They’re more like aliens, really,” his companion clarified.

“Ooh, aliens! Cool!” said Max. He elbowed his sister. “You’ve always wanted to see aliens. Bet’ch’re wishin’ you’d brought your journal, eh?”

“I – nope,” Ursa replied. “This is an experience, not an experiment.”

“Wow, you’re just full of those today.”

They leaned against the wall, watching the two teenagers’ monster fight. They seemed to have things well in hand, so they were left to it.

Rather anticlimactically, the fight ended with a parade of dejected monsters trudging through a tear in space-time, back to wherever they came from.

“That was cool,” Wendy said.

“Of course it was,” the boy replied, grinning. “We’re always cool.”

“We _don’t_ usually have an audience, though,” Maria added.

“Right, well, we don’t usually get to watch other people do the monster-fighting,” Max said. “I’m Max Pines, by the way. This is my sister, Ursa, and our friend Wendy. You guys aren’t from here.”

“I’m Maria,” replied the girl. “That’s Star. He’s an alien, too, but the good kind.”

“We’re on a road trip!” Star said, grinning.

“Ooh, tourists. You been to the Mystery Shack yet?” asked Max. “It’s this town’s best tourist attraction.”

Wendy elbowed him. “It’s this town’s _only_ tourist attraction.”

“We’re heading there next,” Maria replied. “We’re supposed to meet my parents there at one.”

“It’s cool,” said Ursa, “especially if you like fakey mystery stuff.”

“Fakey?” repeated Star, looking a little disappointed.

“Yeah. We leave all the real monsters in the forest,” replied Ursa, wiggling her fingers dramatically.

Maria laughed, but Wendy shook her head seriously. “She’s not joking. We’re not allowed to have real monsters in the Shack anymore.”

“Freaks out the tourists,” agreed Max, nodding.

“Even better,” said Star.

\--

“What is _up_ with you?” Max asked, prodding Ursa repeatedly.

Ursa sighed. “What do you mean?”

“You didn’t even interrogate him! You’re usually all questiony when we meet new weird stuff!” Max said. “And you’re wearing colours, and you’re not bringing your Journal places. What’s going on?”

Ursa tugged at a bit of her hair. “I just – the McGucket stuff really bothered me, okay? I’m taking a break from the research stuff.”

“Oh, May,” Max said. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “You love the research stuff.”

Ursa shrugged and made a noncommittal sound.

“And the Stan Squad wouldn’t let that happen to you,” Max continued seriously. “They love you.”

“I want to believe you, but…”

Ursa sniffled. Her eyes were red, and a little teary. Max squeezed her, and she let her head fall onto his shoulder.

“Look, Urs, I’m not gonna say you have to trust them,” he said, “but you shouldn’t let that change _you_. Even if they aren’t looking out for you, I am. And Wendy, and Soos, and Granddad. You keep doing what you do, sis. We’ll keep you safe.”

“Thanks, Max.”

“But do feel free to keep up the variety in your clothes,” Max continued, grinning. “Laundry is a good thing.”

Ursa laughed despite herself. “Shut _up_.”

\--

The next time they went out, Ursa brought her journal.

“It’s not a report,” she insisted, despite nobody asking, “it’s just field notes.”

“Okay, dork,” Max said, elbowing her. “I’ve got my grappling hook, just in case. I got’chr back, sis.”

Ursa grinned at him, shaking her head. “I know you do, Max.”


End file.
